Forever Werewolf and Moon Kissed by Michelle Hauf: Review

Forever Werewolf Synopsis from Goodreads: Alexis Conner, princess of the Alpine pack and pureblood werewolf, hides a painful secret-she has never shifted. If she can’t shift, she can’t mate, and so Lexi resigned herself to a lifetime of loneliness. But then a stranger arrives, and Lexi senses that her world will never be the same….
A massive avalanche might be to blame for Trystan Hawkes getting stuck at Castle Wulfsiege, but after one look at Lexi, Trystan is not about to leave. Lexi is strong, smart and incredibly sexy. Not that it matters. Tryst is an omega-the fabled lone wolf. Even more damning is his mixed vampire heritage.
Lexi knows that the vampire blood running through Tryst’s veins makes him off-limits, but what if he’s the one man who can rouse her inner wolf?Moon Kissed Synopsis from Goodreads: Escaping from bloodthirsty vampires, Belladonna Reynolds ran straight into the arms of a werewolf. As a man Severo drew her in with his dark good looks; as a beast he astounded her with his insatiable sensual appetite. Whether afraid or aroused, Bella fled to his lair when threatened by an evil monster of the night….Severo tried to keep Bella–his mate–safe from the vampiress who held a malicious desire for revenge against him, but he alone wasn’t enough. Now Bella had taken the form of his most cursed enemy. How could he desire the very thing he’d spent his life destroying? And even if he did, what would the werewolf do to Bella on the next full moon?

Source: Netgalley

My Rating: 4/5 stars

My Review: Trystan Hawkes loves life despite being an unaligned omega wolf from a mixed-breed family. He has put up with the taunts and the teasing all his life but he has never allowed anything to tarnish his outlook on life. While on an errand for his father’s courier service company, Tryst, as his friends call him, never imagined how everything in his world could turn upside down about ten minutes after stepping into Wulfsiege castle. Within that time Tryst meets the stunningly gorgeous ice princess, Lexi and the castle is hit by a devastating avalanche. True to his nature, Tryst immediately jumps in to help the Alpine pack rescue their missing members and try to take his mind off the sexy wolf princess. That should be easy to do, right?

Lexi has three problems: 1) her father, the pack principal is dangerously ill; 2) no male will come near her for fear of offending her father and; 3) she has never actually transformed into her true and proper wolf form. Despite all the drama Lexi does like to have a tiny bit of fun from time to time and Tryst is right up her alley. As long as the two of them keep their business just between them no one will know and Tryst will be gone in just a few days and nothing but a memory.

Turns out neither Lexi nor Tryst can get the other neither off their mind nor out of their system. It is clear from the beginning the two are drawn to and meant for one another but the obstacles they face are numerous. After some steamy yet relatively harmless flirtations, Lexi and Tryst give in to one another and their passions; what comes out of the experience is something no one could have seen coming and all of sudden Lexi and Tryst have not only the mounting problems within the castle to deal with but their newfound feelings for one another.

Everything at Wulfsiege castle seems to come apart at the seams all at once and as her father’s head of security it is Lexi’s job to figure it all out. With Tryst by her side she must determine who is trying to kill her father, how to deal with the second avalanche that hits the castle, how she can secure the safety of the pack against an aggressive and power-hungry wolf and, how she can ever convince both herself and her father that Tryst is her one true mate and should be accepted, despite his lineage into the Alpine pack.

Overall, the plot is good and the chemistry between Lexi and Tryst is good but I found it difficult to really connect to either character. Tryst is just a bit too much of a hippy and Lexi is far too insecure about her “condition”. In all honesty, I found a few of the minor characters far more fascinating and would have liked to have known more about them. For example, there is Liam, the kind-hearted wolf who is in love with Lexi’s spoiled sister and destined to be greater than he is; Vaillant is Tryst’s vampire half- brother who is as loyal to Tryst as he is fiercely devoted to his pregnant wife; there is Rhys, Tryst’s mixed-breed father who apparently has a very, very dark side that isn’t allowed to come out and play very often and finally, there is Viviane, Tryst and Vaillant’s vampire mother who is constantly on the verge of becoming totally and completely bat-crap crazy.

The Bottom Line: All of the madness and issues keeps the plot moving at a good pace and all of the problems and issues are resolved satisfactorily but I never found myself jumping at every available opportunity to sit and read. I certainly didn’t dislike the book but I also didn’t fall in love with it either. Forever Werewolf is a solid plot with moderately interesting characters that will satisfy most readers looking for a werewolf read.

Moon Kissed is the second novel in this two-for-one book and is Bella and Severo’s story. Bella is a fiercely independent web designer who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time during one of her nightly runs. After being pursued by a pack of vampires she is saved by a mysterious stranger who weirdly smells her before letting her go. Understandably, Bella is shaken by the whole experience and even more so when the mysterious stranger appears on her doorstep. While Bella knows she should be frightened by Severo’s reappearance she also knows she is inexplicably attracted to him.

Severo is a lone wolf who has worked tirelessly for years to secure the safety of all wolves and is in no way interested in seeing his mission interrupted by a small human who is being stalked by vampires. Unfortunately, Severo discovers Bella’s encounter with the vampires was not an accident but a planned attack meant to take her out. With a centuries-long grudge against vampires, Severo makes it his new mission in life to save Bella; in an effort to protect her and shut down the threat against her Severo must position himself firmly into the middle of Bella’s life. What both Severo and Bella underestimate is just how deeply their attraction to one another really is. Once Severo figures it all out he quickly accepts the possibility that Bella is his mate and begins to pursue her relentlessly. Again, Bella knows she should be wary of both Severo and his pursuit but her attraction to him is raging. The attraction is so strong she can even ignore the fact that Severo is a living, breathing werewolf.

It doesn’t take long for Bella and Severo to fall into each other’s arms and man when they do, the sparks start to fly. Bella and Severo have a butt-load of crazy awesome sex that might just warrant a re-read in the near future. Dear reader, don’t snicker like you’ve never gone back to just the naughty bits in a books before. You know you have so own it and read on! For security purposes (she writes while smirking) Bella relocates to Severo’s home and has just begun to settle in and get comfortable when things go south for the new couple. This time however, the vampires hit their mark and when Severo finds Bella all but dead in their bed he comes face-to-face with his worst nightmare. Severo must decide if he is strong enough to not only face this nightmare head on but also accept what Bella has become.

The Bottom Line: Overall, I liked Moon Kissed a bit better than Forever Werewolf but still wasn’t burning the midnight oil in order to finish the novel. I very much liked Bella and her stubborn independence but was a bit disappointed in Severo’s weakness near the end of the novel. The plot is a good mix of the past and the present (which I love in a novel) coming together with a fair bit of action and a whole lot of steamy sex. As with Forever Werewolf, I don’t’ have any real complaints about this read but it still only ended up being OK for me.